Cameron Brown 3rd Trial - Q & A II

September 2009. Mr. Sprocket at Lauren's memorial,

on a knoll above Inspiration Point.

A few readers have asked if I will be attending the jury site visit tomorrow. I've decided against attending. Mr. Sprocket and I did an extensive visit to the area in September 2009. We did not take the exact hike that Brown and Lauren took. However, I took several videos and lots of photographs. You can find the links to the videos on the Cameron Brown Quick Links Page.

Tomorrow, there is a hearing in Dept. 108 in the Michael Gargiulo case. I will be attending that hearing.

Here is a poem that a friend of Lauren's wrote about her. I was not given the author's name, just that it was written for Lauren.

Poem:

There's a fairy in my garden,
That will not go away,
Her name is Little Lauren
and that's how she'll always stay.

I will be answering questions on the Brown case over the next few days, as well as trying to get the edits finished on the three days of testimony this week. Post your question in the comments. I will copy and paste your question in this post, and answer the question in the post.

QUESTIONS
BusyWife asked:

I was confused about the testimony about the naked witness and its relevance. Specifically what the drama in the courtroom was about yesterday. Maybe I missed a crucial post? Thanks for enlightening and thanks for your diligent reporting.

 Answer:
It's my understanding from what I heard yesterday, that when asked about defense witness Terry Hope, for the first time in three trials, Detective Leslie testified that when he came upon Mr. Hope in the bushes, he was naked. Mr. Laub, appeared to get upset about this and aggressively crossed the detective on this point.

In argument outside the presence of the jury, Mr. Laub argued to the court that the only reason the prosecution? detective? did this, was to somehow, dirty up the witness to the jury. That's my understanding.  The detective testified that Mr. Hum, for the first time ever, asked him why he always referred to Mr. Hope as, the naked guy.

If I recall correctly, the court stated they didn't understand why Mr. Laub was making such a big issue out of this, since there's been quite a bit of testimony that there was a nude beach.

DDA Hum stated on the record, that as an officer of the court, that yesterday was the first time that he asked Detective Leslie about why he referred to the witness as the naked guy.

There was more explanation from either Detective Leslie or DDA Hum, I can't remember, that Mr. Hope stated that he was a member of The Polar Bears Club, and that [he and or the club] often went swimming in chilly weather/ cold water temperatures.

bella asked:

 It appears Cameron Brown is a sociopath. Has this ever been brought up in any of the trials?

Answer:
Let's think about that for a moment. How would a psychological diagnosis of Brown be obtained and introduced at trial .... by the prosecution? How could you get Brown to agree to be examined by a psychologist or psychiatrist so that a personality disorder could be determined?

Do you see the problem?

The prosecution has presented evidence that they believe shows Brown did not care about his daughter [Prosecution witness #32 Scott Simonson], and that Brown thought about getting rid of his daughter [Prosecution witness #33 Jerome Poingsett].

The defense has presented several witnesses that testified Brown loved his daughter and was interested in more time to form a relationship with her. [Defense witnesses #1 John Dietzler; #2 Joseph Creenan; #3 Mark Thompson; #9 Jan Mueller; #11 Lynne Brown].

BusyWife asked:

Is it true that Cameron Brown was offered a plea to involuntary manslaughter prior to the first trial? I recently read that in a news archive... I'm sure that would have been less time than he has spent in jail at this point. If it's true, I wonder who told him to go to trial? Geragos? Speaking of, do we know why he changed defense attorneys with each trial?

Answer:
I do not know if that is true, that Brown was offered a plea to involuntary prior to the first trial. I would need a news source that states where this information originated. Personally, I don't think that's likely; however, I have no inside information to support that.

A change in attorneys, I would assume, occurred because of finances. It is my understanding, that Brown's family paid for his defense in the first trial. I believe they hired and paid for Mark Geragos. For the second trial, I believe Pat Harris was still part of Geragos' firm at the time and familiar with the case, but it's possible that the family paid for the defense or Pat Harris was appointed by the court. Pat Harris is on the court's roster of independent attorney's to appoint, just like Mr. Laub.

For the third trial, Aron Laub was court appointed. Pat Harris may not have been available for the retrial, or there could be other reasons. I did not cover the pretrial hearings for several years, so I don't know how/why for all the decisions regarding appointment of defense counsel.